Rijeka 2020 and the city of Varaždin exchange educational experience

They will enhance their respective capacities in terms of cultural production

“Clasroom”, an educational programme and flagship idea of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture” project created to build new and enhance already existing knowledge and skills among cultural professionals, was announced in the city of Varaždin. 

The Rijeka 2020 company, which manages the implementation of the European Capital of Culture 2020 programme, and the city of Varaždin have signed an agreement to collaborate in the exchange of the programme for enhancing capacity in cultural production as part of the “Classroom” programme. 

The “Classroom” programme represents a coherent unit of research, educational and auxiliary courses which include developmental activities, active design, interventions, motivational processes and the transformation of community potential into efficient, productive and long-term human and cultural capital. 

Varaždin will adopt a similar model for organizing and conducting educational activities and as a candidate for European Youth Capital 2022 will try to reinforce the capacity of the community. The “Classroom” programme, plus the practices coming from Rijeka, will primarily focus on the successful continuous implementation of educational programmes in compliance with the needs of the cultural sector in Varaždin.

Classroom programme

Up until now, a total of 1455 citizens of Rijeka and other Croatian cities and towns have attended the educational programmes organised by Rijeka 2020. The staggering number of participants were greeted with tons of organized events - 15 workshops, 8 seminars, pre-conference programmes and conferences, 6 continuous education programmes comprising 32 workshops and 312 mentoring hours, and 3 international projects.

As part of the “Classroom” programme, 122 national and international keynote speakers have given lectures and 7 training course material books have been created to aid in seminars, workshops and the pre-conference programme.

The educational content of the activities and the number of citizens and cultural workers involved prove that the “Classroom” programme contributes to the growth of the entire cultural sector in Rijeka and the region.